To save fuel outside of a full load range of a multi-cylinder piston engine, it is known to implement a cylinder deactivation for at least one cylinder of the piston engine. In the case of a cylinder deactivation, the respective cylinder continues to run passively. Its combustion chamber is not fired. That is, no fuel is fed into the deactivated cylinder. To be able to provide a certain target load at the same rotational speed when the cylinder deactivation is activated, the remaining and still active cylinders have to provide a correspondingly higher load.
Such a cylinder deactivation can result in an asymmetrical load on the crankshaft of the piston engine.